Galle Test News

India's track record on overseas tour have rather not been delightful enough to praise with just a few rare occasions when the Men in Blue did clinch an entire series. Under Virat's captaincy, India have so far won just a single series, against the Lankans, back in 2015.

Jayasuriya also held high praise for the current Indian team, saying it is very rare to get such a talented squad in all areas.

Pandya's senior Cheteshwar Pujara feels he can be the second Indian in international cricket, after Yuvraj, to achieve the rarest of rare milestone.

Pandya, just like his skipper Kohli, is a fitness freak and often shares his workout videos on social media websites.

In 49 Tests thus far, Pujara has scored 3966 runs at an average of 52.18, inclusive of 12 hundreds. The last of those centuries came in the recently concluded first Test at Galle that India won by 304 runs inside four days.

Six years after making his Test debut, against West Indies, back in 2011, Ashwin reached a career landmark of 50th Test, when Team India headed down to Sri Lanka for the first of the three Test matches. 

India's most successful Test captain, said that Kohli's competence will be put to Test on the basis of how his team performs in countries like South Africa, Australia and England.

Tharanga couldn't make the most of his lifeline and was bowled by Shami on the 5th delivery of the same over.

India's 304-run win is their largest in terms of runs in away from home Tests, eclipsing the 279 runs' victory against England at Leeds in 1986.

The skipper singled out the 23-year-old for special mention, saying Pandya can emulate what Stokes has been doing for England. Interestingly, Stokes – regarded as world's premier all-rounder – hit his fifth Test hundred yesterday against South Africa during second's day play of the third Test at Kennington Oval.

For Sri Lanka, it was their biggest defeat (in terms of runs), surpassing their 301-run loss against Pakistan in 1994.

The number one ranked side will hope to score quick runs before declaring the innings on the penultimate day of the Test, and give bowlers – especially the spinners – enough time to have a go at the opposition batsmen on a deteriorating pitch.

Kohli is the seventh Indian skipper to aggregate 1,000 or more in overseas Tests - his runs' tally is 1026 (ave 64.12) in eleven Tests, joining Sourav Ganguly (1693), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (1591), Mohammad Azharuddin (1517), Rahul Dravid (1219), Sachin Tendulkar (1098) and Sunil Gavaskar (1023).

With his 81-run knock, Mukund on Friday scored only his second Test half-century after his previous best effort of 62 against the West Indies in Dominica back in 2011.

Virat Kohli (76 batting) and Abhinav Mukund (81) put on 133 runs for the third wicket as India reached 189 for three in 46.3 overs at stumps on a rain-affected day three. Overall, the visitors have a lead of 498 runs after they decided against enforcing the follow-on.

Kohli and Abhinav Mukund 81 (116), who got out off the last ball of the day, put up a 133-run third wicket partnership to end Lanka's chance of coming back into the match.

This is the second time under Kohli's leadership that India have opted to bat despite gaining a sizeable innings lead. Earlier this year, in the one-off Test match against visiting Bangladesh, India took a first innings lead of 299, yet opted to bat again. India won the match by 208 runs at Hyderabad.

Lanka need another 246 runs to avoid the follow-on with former skipper Angelo Mathews batting on 54.

Hardik Pandya (50 off 49 balls) became the fourth Indian batsman to register a 50-plus innings on Test debut vs Sri Lanka. He has joined Suresh Raina (120 at SSC, Colombo in 2010), Arun Lal (63 at Chennai in 1982) and Lalchand Rajput (61 at Colombo, SSC in 1985).

Shami has a fine record in Test match cricket if you look at only the Indian context since the seamers are not exactly the most threatening in world cricket.